|
January, 2005 |
| |
|
|||
|
||||
For the Breaks |
|
What Lies Ahead… for Lunch It is10:05 hours. Just as you finish rummaging through the morning rush of e mails, correspondence and reports, the phone buzzes. You are pleasantly surprised that the caller is your old college mate, Ramesh. Your buddy from college days is back for a short visit after three years in the US and declares that he is returning on Monday. It’s Thursday today. He says, ‘Let’s do lunch tomorrow!’ As you casually check your schedule for tomorrow and make a mental note that you need to be back for the 2:30 weekly sales meeting, you say: ‘All right, let’s meet at 12.30 at… you know place, right!’ There are options galore for doing lunches in Kathmandu, but if one looks closely it is rather difficult to avoid the obvious PBC (pizza, burger and chowmein) places. Rows of food and beverage outlets in Kathmandu embrace endless affinity towards dishes that you would have relished fifteen years ago during your college years. You have arrived in life and do not want to travel back to the culinary street of PBC. So what are your options if you want to avoid the pricey five star lunches?
It really depends on where your office is located. So here are few options location-wise. Durbar Marg-Kamladi-Kantipath area: The ubiquitous row of high and medium priced eateries does present large options, yet few eateries are a cut above the rest. The Nanglo Roof Top offers a sunny terrace that allows you to bask in the winter sun. The best deal there is Nepali vegetarian/ non-veg thali served neatly. Jamal Junction in Kantipath is just a year old but has managed to place itself high on a good lunch wicket. Recently opened, Extreme Doner Kebabs, in the thin inner alley that leads from Kamaladi to Yak & Yeti Hotel serves some mean Doner Kebabs and would be a fair option. For very casual lunches Annan Restaurant in the same street would be another option where service is quick and food is of plain regular vanilla variety. Thamel Area: For meeting an old friend for lunch, try Himalayan Java or cross the street to Fire and Ice with its divine pizzas and pastas. In the same vicinity, try Decheling Garden which serves better Emadashi and Safta than in Bhutan or, if you want to venture deep into Thamel then it would have to be Ying Yang for the heavenly Tom Yang Kum. Lalitpur: The most unassuming venue is Sing-Ma. Started by a group of Singaporean expats, it would be a great lunch point in Patan. Delicious and freshest looking South East Asian fare is the speciality served with friendly demeanour. A little pretentious but an interesting spot is Lasoon Restaurant and Vino-theque in front of the now closed Narayani hotel. If one really wants to get into the bite, try their pork chops. Baneshwor and Baber Mahal: This stretch boasts of a large number of food joints but suffers from too many ‘me too’ outlets all serving PBCs. However, one interesting restaurant in this area would be Chez De Caroline inside the “Baber Mahal Revisited” complex for renowed its ostentatious surrounding combined with pretty good contemporary European cuisine. However, if the yearning is for oriental food then Royal Thai in Baneshwor does offer scrumptious Thai delicacies and an even better option would be the modest Hunan Chinese Restaurant on the other side of the street for some smartly adapted Asian food. Do try out their red pepper chicken. Lazimpat: Once a very lively culinary street, these days’ options are rather limited to the hotels. Perhaps Nepal’s first Thai Restaurant, Him Thai, still in operation here, would be a good choice and also Royal Hana Garden, which serves good oriental cuisine in a very serene surrounding. New Road: This area being valuable commercially, possibly there is no value in investing in a good eatery here or maybe too many traders have invested in too many nondescript eateries. There just aren’t any outlets worthy of mention here... so drive down to Durbar Marg. |
Send your feedback to the editor: bizline@mos.com.np |
